


AW&ST news summaries of spaceflight

by MrToddWilkins (orphan_account)



Series: CompuNet Tales [4]
Category: Space - Fandom
Genre: Anachronic Order, News summaries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:34:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22547107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/MrToddWilkins
Series: CompuNet Tales [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1583215





	1. September 16,1991

I'm posting this one to sci.space and sci.space.shuttle as well as  
sci.space.news as a transition; future summaries will go only to s.s.n.]

Cover is the Tsiklon launcher carrying the Meteor weather satellite with  
the NASA ozone mapper, being elevated to launch position.

Discovery astronauts about to deploy the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite.

NASA HQ is talking to Martin Marietta about using Titan 3 for the EOS birds.  
The top-end Atlas derivative has been discussed for the job, but NASA is  
nervous about using a launcher that has never flown before.

NASA EOS Engineering Review Panel says (to nobody's surprise) that the  
satellites need reconfiguring from the giant platforms, and (somewhat  
less well-known in advance) that the EOS ground facility design also  
needs a major reworking.

Pictures of the launch of India's second remote-sensing satellite from  
Baikonur.

The Soviet Military Satellite Control Center (SOOP in Russian) is...  
available for lease! Not the whole thing, mind you, but its facilities  
are available for lease to any non-Soviet group doing commercial or  
scientific missions. The SOOP staff reportedly did not like the idea,  
not so much because of military security but because they did not want  
to be embarrassed by the center's primitive (by Western standards)  
technology.

Long report of the AW&ST visit to Plesetsk Cosmodrome (the world's busiest  
spaceport, and until recently highly secret). Plesetsk has launched more  
spacecraft than the entire non-Soviet world put together. It averages  
50% more launches than Baikonur despite having only nine operational pads  
and one-third of Baikonur's personnel, mostly because of highly automated  
operations and the absence of the more complex manned missions. Plesetsk  
is preparing for Zenit launches, doubling payload into polar orbit.

Lockheed offers its "F-SAT" concept of a semi-standard mid-size spacecraft  
bus. The USAF is very interested in the notion, and most major satellite  
builders are believed to have similar projects in the works. F-SAT is not  
meant to be particularly cheap; in particular, it includes a lot of on-  
board computing capability, a high-precision attitude-control system, and  
quite a bit of power. F-SAT is being done along lines recommended by  
Lockheed's famous Skunk Works, with a small group of experienced people  
all located in one building with the best support tools and a relatively  
free hand to make their own decisions. [They've only made one serious  
mistake: they plan to use Ada for the software. :-)]


	2. February 4,1991

Discovery mission to fly in March [well, whenever...] to try out improved  
shuttle computers: more compact, lighter, less power, larger memory, and  
higher speed.

Lockheed reveals project to develop three standard satellite buses, "F-Sat".  
"F" officially is for "frugal", but it also stands for "fat", signifying use  
of greater weight and power margins to minimize redesign for new payloads.  
The F-Sats are meant for Atlas/Delta-class payloads, with a target cost  
[not clear whether this is bus or whole bird] of $30M each. [The list of  
suggested applications is basically NASA and military, suggesting little  
interest in commercial customers initially.]

USAF Space Systems Div. officially delays the next Navstar launch until  
the solar-array pointing failure in the last Navstar is understood.

Cape York project hits a financial snag: Essington Developments, the  
project's current developer, is withdrawing and wants to sell out.

Discovery launch slips slightly due to defects in maneuvering thrusters.  
[They haven't found the cracked door hinges yet.]

SDIO expects a strong shift in its funding, away from space-based hardware  
towards ground-based hardware, in keeping with the new White House emphasis  
on countering limited attacks. Brilliant Pebbles is still hanging in there,  
though, with SDIO bravely trying to prove that it could stop Scuds.

NASA tightens security, especially at KSC and JSC, as a precaution against  
terrorism. Most JSC tours have been suspended, and KSC tours are being  
watched more carefully. Employee entrances to crucial areas are also  
getting more attention.

US Army's experimental Eris interceptor successfully sorts out an imitation  
warhead from decoys and destroys it in test Jan 28. Two more flight tests  
are planned this year, aimed mostly at presenting more difficult problems  
with decoys and countermeasures.

White House initiative to refocus SDI sparks Congressional debate, with  
some claiming it revives the program while others claim it shows a program  
still in search of a mission.

Spy satellite coverage of Gulf reported excellent, with frequent satellite  
passes aided by the more modern birds' ability to work well to either side  
of their ground track. The Lacrosse radarsat is particularly useful in  
spotting armored-vehicle concentrations in bad weather. The missile-  
warning satellites in Clarke orbit are proving to be somewhat useful  
for reconnaissance as well; notably, the new-model warning sensors turn  
out to be capable of spotting fighter afterburners, and use of this is  
being studied.

[A sidelight on this is that the KH-12 that reportedly broke up after  
shuttle launch last March appears to be operational; apparently the  
"breakup" was jettisoning of covers and shields before maneuvering,  
not an accident.]

Martin Marietta and Bechtel are scrambling to get pad 40 at the Cape  
rebuilt in time for the Mars Observer launch in Sept 1992. MO will go  
up on Commercial Titan, but the main objective of rebuilding pads 40  
and 41 is better Titan 4 facilities, to support the USAF's plans for  
up to six launches a year. Pad 40 rebuilding is particularly drastic,  
with the old structure essentially being torn down and replaced in  
its entirety.


	3. August 24,1987

Editorial commending the Ride report, and urging that it not get buried  
in the White House bureaucracy. The National Commission on Space is  
re-submitting its report in hopes that it will get attention this time.

Intelsat prepares for RFP for Intelsat 7 series. They will be smaller  
than the enormous Intelsat 6s. The first 2-3 will be for the Pacific,  
for launch in 1992-3, with possibly more for the Atlantic 3-4 years later.

Predictions of shortage of engineering talent in the Washington DC area  
as NASA's space station contracts start hiring hundreds.

[*Just* what the space program needs, more bureaucrats.....]

Oops: the Shuttle-C shuttle-derived heavylift launcher may end up in  
competition for funds with the advanced-SRB project.

Official release of the Ride report, calling for aggressive action and  
[gasp] planning. "Without an eye toward the future, we flounder in the  
present." NASA is giving it a lukewarm reception at best. NASA people  
have been ordered to downplay it, and there was debate over whether it  
should be released at all. (NASA is afraid of the reaction from the  
Office of Mismanagement and Beancounting.)

Ride report endorses shuttle and station, but as tools rather than goals.  
Shuttle-derived cargo vehicle should be developed immediately. Strong  
consideration of a new *manned* expendable urged, for station logistics.  
Strong emphasis on technology development, notably the Pathfinder program.

Ride report says US could return to Moon by 2000, base by 2005-2010. Mars  
would take longer. Mars is clearly the ultimate near-future goal, but  
"...we should avoid a `race to Mars'. There is a very real danger that if  
the US announces a human Mars initiative at this time, it could escalate  
into another space race. This could turn an initiative that envisions  
the ultimate deployment of a habitable outpost into another one-shot  
spectacular... Settling Mars should be our eventual goal, but it should  
not be our next goal... We should adopt a strategy of natural progression  
which leads step-by-step, in an orderly unhurried way... towards Mars.  
Exploring and prospecting the Moon... would provide the experience and  
expertise necessary for further human exploration of the solar system.  
[We found] considerable sentiment that Apollo was a dead-end venture,  
and that we have little to show for it. Although this task force found  
some who dismissed [the lunar] initiative because `we've been to the  
Moon', it found more people who feel that this generation should continue  
the work begun by Apollo."

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union plans to launch by the mid-1990s one or more  
dedicated asteroid missions with surface probes.

SDI's Innovative Science and Technology group to launch first space  
experiment on sounding rocket in November, looking at problems of using  
high-power electrical equipment in space. IST is looking at the "small  
satellites" ideas and lightweight launchers, although it isn't funding  
them yet. Advanced propulsion work includes a proposal to replace the  
inert binder in solid rockets with a combustible fuel, and another to make  
solid fuels with continuous rather than batch processes. Materials work is  
looking at thin-film diamond as a semiconductor (it might be better than  
gallium arsenide) and as a tough coating for optical surfaces.

Arianespace delays Ariane launch four days to give the launch teams some  
rest. [Launch successful.]

Launch of Japanese H-1 booster carrying engineering test satellite slips  
four days due to valve problem in second stage. [Launch successful.]

Chinese reentry capsule, carrying French experiment package, recovered  
after five days in orbit. [Also, I made a mistake in reporting this one:  
the capsule was of the type used for film-recovery spysats, but this  
particular mission was all scientific.]

Inmarsat planning R&D program on navigation satellites.

AW&ST is running a multi-part series on South American aerospace, including:

Chilean space activity is modest but significant. Prominent in it is the  
shuttle emergency-landing runway on Easter Island; this involved extending  
the airport's runway and adding approach lights and landing aids. Chile  
hopes to fly an astronaut on the shuttle eventually. Also of note are an  
ozone-depletion experiment done jointly with the US and UK, and the first  
South American ground station for the Sarsat (search and rescue) program.

Brazil's larger space program continues progress on building its own  
launcher (roughly Scout-class), environmental and Earth-resources  
satellites to go up on it, and a near-equatorial launch site for it. First  
launch tentatively 1989.

ESA awards contract to British Aerospace for feasibility study of mobile  
communications satellite system, possibly using Molniya orbits for good  
coverage at high latitudes.


	4. April 2,1990

White House is dithering on whether to let United Technologies Corp's  
USBI division get involved in managing the Cape York spaceport. The  
problem is that although the spaceport would be in Australia and  
manned by Australians, they'd be using Soviet boosters.

Plans for Discovery after HST deployment include quite a bit of Earth  
photography, since this will be the highest US astronauts have flown  
in Earth orbit since 1966. Gemini 10 used its Agena's engines to push  
it into a 413nmi orbit; Gemini 11 reached 740nmi briefly at apogee.  
Target for Discovery is 330nmi. [Quite impressive photo taken from  
Gemini 11.]  
  


Launch failure or no, Arianespace keeps on signing contracts... The latest  
pair are for France's Telecom 2B comsat (summer 1991) and ESA's Infrared  
Space Observatory (spring 1993). Arianespace is still recovering debris  
from the failure; the misbehaving engine has been located and preparations  
are underway for recovery.

Payload Systems Inc is still examining the load of crystals grown for it  
on Mir, but the first flight of the growth experiment is clearly a major  
success. Almost all the sample vials grew crystals. Better yet, almost  
all the crystals survived the high-G Soyuz reentry, something there were  
many doubts about. This was not a revenue flight -- the vials contained  
test materials rather than samples from commercial customers -- but there  
is no shortage of commercial customers now that the demonstration flight  
has proved the hardware.

PSI says dealing with the Soviets is rather different from dealing with  
NASA, mostly in positive ways. PSI did not get to train the cosmonauts  
directly, instead being asked to supply a videotape for training. That  
aside, "We had incredible cooperation from them. They bent over backward  
for us." PSI had complete control of the equipment until flight, with  
one of their representatives helping to load the equipment into the  
Progress freighter. Furthermore, the Soviets waived approval of the  
individual chemicals, instead accepting certification from an independent  
(US!) test lab that the chemicals posed no hazard to the Mir crew. "[We]  
think it's a landmark, because we've never been able to do that with NASA."  
PSI's only complaint is the very limited return payload of the Soyuz.

Soviets publish specs for seven space materials-processing facilities,  
some of which have not flown yet.

Richard Sokowlowski, NASA's top microgravity man, says "I'm a little  
bit jealous of the Soviet program -- people who have opportunities to  
do microgravity research again and again."

Article about a hitherto-unknown NSA snoopsat system, "Jumpseat", now  
winding down. This was a series of eavesdropping satellites launched  
into orbits very similar to those of the Soviet Molniya comsats, for  
the purpose of listening to their communications traffic. The program  
is winding down because the bulk of Soviet traffic now goes via Clarke  
orbit rather than the Molniyas. The Jumpseats were long confused with  
the Satellite Data System, thought to be a comsat system for use by  
aircraft in the Arctic and now known to be actually a relay system for  
real-time imagery from the KH-11 spysats. SDS also seems to be winding  
down, presumably because new satellites -- the DSCS-3 strategic comsats,  
perhaps? -- are taking over its function.

General Accounting Office sharply criticizes NASA for not adequately  
protecting stored data from past space missions. Most of the NASA  
storage facilities do not meet relevant standards, and some tapes are  
stored in conditions that almost guarantee data loss. (Photo of tape  
racks showing the waterline of a flood some years ago.) The problem  
is not new, and it is a growing concern since the volume of incoming  
data is about to rise sharply with Magellan, HST, and EOS.


End file.
